The Gospel According To The Meninblack 1981 Album

The Stranglers

Building from the song “Meninblack” on The Raven, the Stranglers found themselves with the time and resources to riff on that idea however they wanted to, and this album was the end result. JJ Burnel has claimed that it may be the first “techno” album, but as usual, the truth is far harder to ascertain. Certainly, the music is keyboard-emphasized, but not exactly the danceable New Wave most people think of when they think of the genre. Not with the obscure references to aliens, the often-confusing rhythmic patterns, and the deadpan and/or hollowed-out delivery coming from the vocalists on all of these tracks. And to think, the band actually thought something like “Thrown Away” would be a hit? Yeah sure – if the chart was on Hades, or someplace similar. This is, for all intents and purposes, the Stranglers’ indulgence album. And more power to them, I say, because many tracks here are quite interesting and need quite a few listens to properly sink in. The cover itself looks like a complicated tome for an even more overwhelmingly complicated volume of work within. Of course, when one hears the aural content, the only real confusion arises from the theme, which like most of these affairs, is rather undefined to begin with.It is Greenfield and the rhythm section doing yeoman’s work, not only holding it together for the sake of pure comprehension, but also giving life to what could have been otherwise staid textures and moods.